Nostalgia
by Stefohn
Summary: On one boring day, Markus and I dig a part of our past, hidden for over a decade. One-shot.


**I'd just like to notify you before you read further: I feel like another story of mine, called "Suppressed Memories" was a bit too forced in my opinion, and I don't like forced stories. Thus, I will be deleting it. I would like to say sorry to those who liked the story. I'm not good at romance or that kind of stuff, but I'm practicing how to write those stories silently.  
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**That being said, I'm playing a game that I left for quite a while, and decided to write about it here in this one-shot. I hope you enjoy it as I did when I wrote it!**

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><p>"Dammit, I'm bored."<p>

"You're not the only one."

I guess I've been living a life so busy that I got used to it. I never thought the day that I would receive minimal operations/consultations arrived. Especially today, out of all days. When the girls found out, they rushed out of the hospital to god-knows-where, laughing like madmen. No, mad-women. And, by girls, I mean most of the female doctors. The fact that the patients here today are substantially less compared to average days is both nice to hear and slightly disheartening. I think it's good if the people don't require our services so much because chances are, they are healthy – although there are chances that the amount of patients in a day are the same but they went to other hospitals or clinics, but I'm optimistic - but on the other hand, I have to admit that it isn't good for my salary, or Markus's, or any other doctor's.

"Markus?"

He snapped out of his daydream, and wiped the edge of his mouth.

"What's the matter?"

"You drool while daydreaming, dude?"

"Do I?" He raised both eyebrows slightly while looking at me. Oh come on, is he trying to fool me?

"Come on, dude, don't lie to me. I just saw you wiping your drool off an edge of your mouth."

"Well, you caught me." Markus seemed nonchalant and composed as he usually was, only this time, I could see hints of what looked to be distraught. After a short while of silence, he asked me, "You think that I should've gone with them?"

"Them who?"

"The girls."

"Oh, you mean Val, Elena, Kanae, and most of the female doctors?"

My gaze veered to the side, processing Markus's question, trying to answer it thoughtfully, like I always have when I'm serious and bored; I'd do anything plausible to keep the boredom off me. I finally gathered a laconic answer. Putting my feet on top of my stack of books, I adjust myself to a more comfortable position and say, "I think you should have, since there isn't much source of entertainment in the hospital. You should try to call them, and ask where they are. You do have their phone numbers, right?" Markus grabbed his phone from his table, saying "I do. Let me try," and proceeded to presumably try to call them, in an attempt to escape the shackling chains of... boredom. I would have come up with a better substitute to the word "boredom", but I'm just too stuck in a state of ennui.

"Any luck?" I asked, after looking at Markus who was furrowing his eyebrows, probably frustrated.

"None of them are answering, unfortunately," Markus sighed, and put his phone back on the table. "I guess they're having fun."

"I would think so. Now it's just you and me in this empty office room." I look out to the sunset sky, hoping to find inspiration of some sort, or blindness. Depends on how suicidal I'm feeling.

...Hey, you know what? I think I just got one. One inspiration, that is. I averted my head from the vast window and looked at Markus again. Markus simply tilted his head slightly when he saw me. "What?"

"Dude, do you play that game?"

"What game?"

"You know, that two-dimensional game where you quest, kill monsters, and stuff."

I forgot what the name was, but I remember what the game was like.

"That one online game... The name had something to do with tales, or stories, or something."

Markus cupped a hand on his chin, and seemed to be in thought. Silence permeated the room for a short while before he opened his eyes, and answered, "Oh, that game."

I nodded my head. Now we're getting somewhere! He continued on, "I played that when I was in high school. Well, I played it when I was in university as well, but not as active as when I was in high school." He took a deep breath, muttering what seemed to me to be, "Nostalgia." I smiled. The game brought a lot of memories back during high school too. Well, memories of being the only one to play it in an all-boys school where everyone else played this real-time strategy game where someone could play as a treant, or a lion, or a bounty hunter, or a thunder-controlling panda-with-a-bamboo-hat, if I wasn't mistaken.

Markus interrupted my train of thought, asking me, "You played it too, I assume. What class did you use?"

"You know... those twins? If my memory serves me right, those twins were like the rulers of time or something."

Slightly out of his usual character, he retorted, "That class? Man, you're unfair. That class is supremely overpowered, and raising it isn't hard too."

"Markus, the leveling process wasn't hard, but it was sure as hell boring. I had to grind hundreds of times through a single dungeon just to gain a few levels. Sure, I got quite a lot of in-game currency there, but it was just so boring! I agree though, the class is quite overpowered, but I didn't know that then; I just chose the flashiest class icon!"

"It still has the highest damage per second on 2013, last I checked."

2013... around twelve years ago. "Are you kidding me?! Really? Is that class ever going to be released again?"

"As far as I know, no. They only released it for one period. Well, no regrets on my part."

"Oh? No regrets? What's your class, anyway?" What did he choose: some weak class or an overpowered one like mine?

"Oh, me? I think it was some sort of dragon warrior. I can't quite put a finger on what it is, but it was a mostly stationary class."

"Wow, dude. That class has the coolest design in my opinion. I mean, you can just spam a move without budging and heal yourself with every attack, right?"

"Yep. Quite versatile too as it can change modes from attack mode to defense mode and vice versa, but when it comes to mobility, your class trumps mine by far." Markus smiled, talking to me enthusiastically.

I remember a boss where having high mobility didn't help at all. In fact, Markus's class's storyline had that boss as the final boss. I also remember those meteorites all over the battle field. My class's attacks move my character everywhere around the field, and thus I had to take extra caution dealing with that boss, since those meteorites deal damage based on the color; a type even gives an instant knockout...

I spit my mind's results out. "Mobility isn't always helpful. Remember the meteorites?"

"That boss? Yes, I do. What about them?"

"Don't you think that my class would have suffered? My class's attacks move the character everywhere, dude. And by going everywhere, my character had more chance to get hit by those meteorites."

He cupped a hand on his chin once more, and answered me, "You're right. But when it comes to bossing in general, your class is the better choice."

"Well, it WAS a class meant to tackle bosses." One of the characters had this trait of dealing extra damage to bosses. Not to be trifled with. Now I miss that game. Badly. I desperately need to play it.

"Can we still download it, Markus?"

When Markus heard my question, he looked at me incredulously. "And play it here? Are you crazy? This isn't even our computer!"

"But dude, even yesterday, I saw Val saving videos of ponies on her computer. I'm sure this is fine, right?" The things Valerie saved on her office computer looked like cartoon ponies.

"Just don't blame me if things go wrong." Markus smirked, and added, "I don't know about Val, but during a forced trip to Everett's office, I saw Kanae along with Elena saving what appeared to be episodes of a samurai series, I think. Well, if three people have done it before we did and haven't been called or anything, we should be fine. Anyway," he clicked a few times with a mouse in his grasp, and settled on a sitting position on his chair.

"Let me check if the site is even on. It's been too long." He turned on his computer's monitor and started to mash things on the keyboard.

"Site's on, but let me check whether the game is still there." It's a miracle if the game is still alive. Twelve years ago, all I could see was independent currency sellers making spam characters promoting their site, and a crappy community. Who knows; something might have changed during my hiatus.

"Game's alive. I'm sending the download link your way. Check your email." Markus quickly typed on the keyboard, eyes concentrating on the screen.

"Good job, Markus." I opened my email account, and saw the email from him. Opening the link, I immediately downloaded what appeared to be the downloader. Downloader opened, the game was downloaded at blinding speed. Man, when I was in Indonesia, the maximum speed was around 1 megabyte per second. Now, in Maryland no less, it's over a gigabyte a second! The difference of download time was just too different.

"Downloading. Damn, this is fast!"

The game being only around 7.4 gigabytes, it took a very short while to download it. "So, we're setting this thing up first, right? Just to remind you, hide the folder somewhere." Every game I had played before, I hid the game folder in the same partition as the system files, so no one would suspect. This game was going to receive the same treatment as the rest of them.

"I got you. I'm setting it up. What channel do you play on?" Markus prompted, never looking away from his monitor. "This server with a purple square icon. You?"

"The same. Coincidences, coincidences." Especially since that particular server is one of the loneliest servers out of all the servers. "I'm going to the login screen. How're you doing?" Markus asked over the monitor.

I was logged in already, searching for the server. "Logged in already."

Markus half-shouted with what seemed to be excitement to me, stating, "Got the server. I'm choosing my character. Server's the purple square one, you're right."

I clicked on the server, and chose the last channel, or the one with the least traffic. I commanded, "Go to the last channel; I don't want any sexual harassers talking to us here." During the time I left the game, there were a lot of harassers, mainly cussing other lower-level players for being "n00bs"/newbies, or using "Yo mama" jokes which, so to say, is classless. Markus, from his side of our office, said, "I agree with you. So, where are we going to meet up?"

"Why not in this... mushroom town?" I don't know what the name of the area was, but it had orange mushrooms all over it. "Orange Mushroom Town, whatever it is, then." Markus clicked a few times.

"So, what's your username?" I asked him. "A disgusting name, apparently, called 'Gamerpro666'. Yours?"

"Hahahaha! Dude, you couldn't have picked a worse name! Mine's 'ravenv5'. See me yet?" Markus must've had a dreary past, for him to choose a username like "Gamerpro666".

"Oh I see you alright. There you are. What's with a raven on your name? You trying to bring omens of death to people or something?" He mockingly laughed.

Putting aside the attempt at an insult, I saw his character too. "I'll let that slide. I see you. Nice, your level is not much different than mine. Your character has impressive stats too. So, what are we going to do now?"

"Let's tackle the bosses, then grind. You know, that hall area."

I recall the hall area being the main area for top-level players to grind back then. Has the tradition been passed on, even until now?

"Well, which boss first?" I played around with some of the attacks and buffs, and I could see him doing the same thing. This was going to be fun.

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><p>"Well, that was fun." Markus exited the game, and put the computer to sleep. I did likewise, sighing happily. "Nostalgia, huh?"<p>

Markus smirked at me, saying, "Definitely."

I took it further, walking to him and offered my hand. "To level 200?"

He took my hand firmly, and the both of us shook our hands. "To level 200."

At that moment, Valerie, Elena and Kanae arrived on the hallway, chattering loudly. "And... there they are," I remarked. Well, shift's over, so it's time to go home. Markus and I grabbed our things, and exited our office into the hallway. Valerie noticed us, and waved her hands at us along with Elena, Kanae behind them. "Hey, what were the both of you doing?"

"Oh, nothing much," Markus answered. "Just..."

I completed his sentence. "Experiencing some nostalgia, that's all."

Markus chuckled, saying, "Couldn't have said it better. You guys had fun there?"

Elena chimed in, bubbly and happy as ever. "There were a lot of things we did today!"

It was my turn to chuckle. They looked like they were in a state of euphoria, and they looked happy in a strange way. I guess that's one of the things freedom gives you when you're confined to a life filled to the brim with business. "Glad to know, Elena, glad to know."

I continued on. "Hey, we're going home, since the shift's over. You three take care, okay?"

Kanae, this time, answered, "We will. The two of you take care as well."

Markus started to walk to the basement, while he waved a hand, saying, "See you tomorrow!"

I went to the lobby since my car was parked near the lobby. As I turned on my car and drove home, I thought, _Today wasn't a bad day at all, huh?_ I thought a bit further. _Even better, there was this kid named "redemptionCR" who helped us reach 200. Have to thank him when I meet him again._

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><p>The next day though...<p>

"What is this tomfoolery?" The director, namely Irene Quatro, was fuming at us. And by us, I mean the five of us. Around ten minutes ago, Kanae, Markus, Valerie, Elena, and I were called to the director's office. I pretty much knew why I was called, and so did Markus since he said, "About time," while chuckling. Markus and I hurried our way to the director's office, where we saw the three female colleagues I mentioned earlier.

"Elena, and dr. Tsuji. What are you two doing saving samurai movies on your desktop?" The director was losing her composure word by word. Not even giving them any time to answer, she fumed on. "Dr. Blaylock! Cartoon ponies are to be watched by kids, not to be used as a time-waster by a doctor. A doctor of Caduceus, no less!" I couldn't stifle my laughter anymore, and ended up breaking into a huge fit of laughs. Not just because the director was acting totally out of character, but because Elena, Kanae, and Valerie were keeping those files, just as Markus and I suspected, and also because Irene had an idea of what cartoon ponies were supposed to be, which means that she watched it either by herself or with her kids.

Well, Irene... wasn't happy. "Especially you two!" She said while pointing to me and Markus, who was smirking like an idiot. "Do you have any idea of how slow the Internet speed was yesterday as a result of your actions?"

She was about to explode, when Valerie and the other two immediately restrained her, with her saying, "Director, calm down!" while restraining Irene's hands, with Elena and Kanae pushing her back to her seat.

"Well, good times, huh, Markus?" I smirked at the ensuing pandemonium going on, staying away from the director. Markus only looked at me, and sniggered too.

"You bet."

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><p><strong>You know who "I" is, if you've read my previous story, and I've included a very short cameo of a character from another Trauma Center game into the story. Who is that character? If you do know, feel free to write it in the reviews section. Please review, especially if you think that I could improve the story in any way, and if you choose to press the like button, I will consider that action as fuel to write more.<strong>

**About the game, as I am playing it right now, every bit of reality in the game is presented in the story. What is that game anyway?**

**Finally, I haven't been writing at the same speed I usually do lately, and it is because of semestral exams at school. Have a good day, everyone.**


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